OSCE launches series of training seminars on gender mainstreaming in Kazakhstan

Implementing gender mainstreaming in the work of local governments and election campaigns was the focus of an OSCE-supported training seminar for some 40 high-level local government executives and local district legislators from South Kazakhstan region in Shymkent on 12 May 2016.

The participants addressed gender-related challenges in Kazakhstan with a particular focus on the international legal instruments on gender equality, gender-responsive budgets, identifying obstacles affecting the political, economic and social advancement of women and further ways to expand women’s involvement into traditionally male-dominated professions.

They also learned about election strategy and other communication techniques for successful campaigns and were briefed on how to apply gender-mainstreaming principles to promote good governance, transparency and accountability in rural communities and small towns.

“One of the objectives of the Plan of the Nation ‘100 Concrete Steps to Implement Five Institutional Reforms’ – the reform of the civil service – is aimed at forming a professional and autonomous state apparatus,” said Elena Tarassenko, Deputy Head of the National Commission on Women’s Affairs and Family-Demographic Policy under the President. “In this respect, it must be possible at all levels to involve women in all spheres of the socio-political and economic life of the country.”

The seminar was organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Astana in co-operation with the National Commission and the Regional Administration.

The event is the first in a series of three training seminars, organized as part of the Office’s long-standing efforts to support the host country in implementing the OSCE Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality.